Page 10 of The Brooding Alpha's Mate
“Oh.” I pulled the comforter up toward my chest. “Yes. Sorry.”
“There’s nothing to apologize for. I’ll be right back. You’re safe here, by the way. No one will harm you. Two minutes.”
Two minutes dragged on like an hour but soon, Alex came back with a tray filled to the brim with every food imaginable. I dug in like I hadn’t eaten in years.
“Who was he?” Alex asked after I’d demolished most of the food.
“Who was who?”
“The man who was hurting you. The alpha claiming you belonged to him.”
“The lion?” I asked. The bear was angry. At me? Maybe. I didn’t know him well enough yet, but I knew enough. He was my mate. That much I was absolutely sure of.
“Yes. The feline. He said you belonged to him. What is his name?”
“Dean.”
“Dean,” he grumped. “Dean is a liar.”
I let out a laugh. “I agree, but what did he lie about this time?”
Alex sat back down on the bed and took my hands in his. His fingers and palms were rough, but his touch was safe and warm. “The feline lied about you being his. You don’t belong to him. You are not his omega. You don’t smell of him.”
“No. He meant another way, but how do you know I’m not his omega?”
“Because that’s impossible. You’re mine. My fated mate. The one I’ve waited my entire life for. You can’t be his because you’re mine.”
Oh. At least we were on the same page.
Except his probably ended in a happily ever after, while mine? I wanted to get out of here before Dean tracked me down and hurt Alex. I might not be able to be his forever, but I wantedno harm to ever come to him. He was kind and gentle and he saved me.
I’d die before I saw him hurt.
“I scented you in the store…before he hurt me. Before the chemicals.”
“I scented you as well. I almost killed Dean for what he did to you.”
“I might’ve liked to have seen that.”
Chapter Six
Alex
Things tended to get very complicated once humans got involved. Tonight was no exception.
We had to deal with ambulance and fire and police…telling them enough so they’d let us be, but not too much so they needed to investigate more. If we had all been shifters, it wouldn’t have been a big deal. But the guy behind the counter was very human and kept insisting there was a lion in the store.
Because of that, we all got a thousand additional questions.
Including the fucking lion.
It turned out his name was Dean. And Dean had a death wish, one I longed to fulfill for him. How dare he abuse an omega? And to have the audacity to abuse my mate? Fuck no.
In the end, the police were sure that the chemicals had gotten to the employee’s head and that he needed to be seen. If all luck was on that poor guy’s side, he’d believe that was what happened in the morning. Because no one wanted to live in a world where everybody thought you were a liar.
But with Dean hovering around, waiting for us to leave…or waiting for the humans to leave, I didn’t know which, I had no choice but to get the omega into the ambulance with me by his side.
Dean had tried to take my spot, but the omega had grabbed my arm. He wasn’t even fully conscious, but that was enough for the authorities to tell Dean to bug off. And then there was the fact that his shirt was missing. That couldn’t have helped him at all.
